IE

I must first say that, overall, I have enjoyed most parts of the classes and they have greatly improved my English-writing proficiency. Thanks at least partly to them, I got the score of 24/28 in an essay test (the 1st grade of Eiken) and passed the first screening stage the other day. It is not quite impressive score, but more than enough to take me to the second stage. I feel very thankful to you all for that.

As a token of my gratitude to professor, here I will write some points both good and remaining to be improved which I wish would be of some help. I wrote some on the back side of the questionnaire, but the time was not enough.

Good points:

Professor's talks were practical and of general application in that they seemed to be quite necessary not just to survive university courses, but to do well in the real world after graduation. The advice was quite impressive to the effect that to be successful, one needs to do more than expected, rather than to be contented with having doing just bare minimum(but in the presentation part, I could not do even bare minimum).

Professor's attitude and class room atmosphere helped make me quite sure that in this class, it was safe to express one’s opinions and thoughts freely and this belief encouraged me to write political and historical issues freely. Very fair.

Points remaining to be improved:

It is maybe useful to make narrow the range of media discussion subjects. By doing so, it would become much easier to acquire a number of subject-related vocabularies and to deepen discussions.

Looking forward to seeing Armstrong the next semester in the academic writing class, being the “third” opportunity for me to see him in a class.

IE

I don't really feel yet that IE class has finished today. However, I will face the fact when the second semester begins. One year and a half. It is the time I spent for the class. Though it seems that I spent many long time, I feel it was over before I realized what was happening. Honestly, I wish I would choose IE seminar. I think this is the only class to discuss about something with teacher and students for me while most class forms are lecture style. It is regrettable not to talk with class members enough. But, it is no exaggeration to say that this class gives me a broad outlook on life and influences my ability to think and my view of life. I am so glad to know a lot of things through the class. So, farewell IE class and Hello academic writing and skill.

Summer Vacation

Do you have plans in summer vacation?
I am going to visit Grandmother's house. I visit her every year. I am looking forward to meet her. Ican also meet my cousin.

I want to play with my friends in this summer and will take some qualifications.
I want to know your summer vacation's plans^^!!

Last weekend

Last weekend, I went to Yamagata with my family to visit a grave of my grandparents. We went there with our car, and it took about four hours from our house. There were a lot of delicious food such as cakes, fruits, and meat, so I bought many of them. Especially, peaches were really good. They were very sweet and fresh. We stayed at a Japanese-style hotel that night. The room was so big, so I could relax. The food in the hotel were also great! I want to go there again some days.

July 10th

Last Friday was my sister's birthday:) After school, I went to eat with my sister and my mom in Doma-Doma. I was sooo hungry so I ordered food a lot. All of the dishes in Doma were delicious so I was happy to go there and could enjoy. At the last, the waiters celebrated my sister's birthday and brought a big cake for her! It was really big so we could not eat all. However it was really good and happy to eat it.

Media

We use many media in our lives to get information. In fact, there are many media around us. Especially, we often see posters in the trains, at school, and on the road. I think posters have strong messages. We get impressions from its pictures, letters and colors. The person who made it have some porposes and think about the designs again and again. So each posters has each characters. I like looking the designs of posters and magazines.

media

I think the word of media is so ambiguous to understand clearly.
TV is media,books and magazines are media, newspaper is also media and ad is media.
But, when I hear the word of media, I can't imagine the vision of media.
By the way, tomorrow I'll have my last IE class. I feel it was too short but I also think it was too long. So, it's so strange.

LAST

We have presentation tomorrow class and then IE core will be over!! It is last one for us..I can't believe it! The time flew by quickly, yes? Actually it was taugh for me to do media report and this blog everyweek and two book reports the class was fun though. Also it is so nice to talk with you guys. I will miss the class...anyway THANK YOU SO MUCH. x

So much fun

Last weekend, I had so much fun!
On saturday I and my firiends who have known since high school went for high school festival! It has been over one year when I saw one of friends last time. So it was so lovely meeting them! We met some of friends at the school, too. Also we met teachers whom I was taught before. It was really nice visiting there and I recalled the memories of days at high school. I felt thet high students were really young! lol I couldn't believe that I was a student of it two years ago...
Yesterday I went for dinner at Saizeriya with my friend who is aussie. She is soo cute and great. It is amazing that I can talk with her and know different culture. Also I can practice speaking English as well!

IE class

Next Tuesday, our IE class is last. It is very sad; Recently, I became to be able to talk with many classmates, so I hope we will become more friendly:)

Tests

I have five tests in this term. Though it looks it is easy to prepare for tests, the two subjects are very difficult for me to deal with. the subjects are civil law and the Constitution of Japan. they are required subjects of the department of law and I didn't need to choose them. But, I was interested in them when I was searching for the subjects in April because I wanted to be a public employee in that time. Studying civil law and the Constitution of Japan are indispensable to become a public employee. But, I lost interest in the job and it is just a burden for me. First of all, they are essay-type tests. the preparation for the tests gives me a lot of trouble. And I don't know what I have to do for the test of civil law because I couldn't attend the last class. It sounded the professor told the information. I asked the friends of department of law to tell me about the information. But, nobody knows it. If someone knows about it, please tell me about it.

Oh, if anyone wants the picture we took today, it's this :P

Today, we had our last presentations. It was really unique of how everyone presented, and the surveys were very interesting to see. It might have been better if we had more time to prepare for the presentations. Although it was our last class today, hope there will be an opportunity to meet again :)

What I learned in IE core class

We have learned and thought about media, environmental problems, cross-cultural communication and relationship. I learned that everything on the Earth include these topics are connected and there is nothing which has no means.
Every time our class had been think about these topics from several aspects.
I always found something new thoughts in the video which Dr.Armstrong shows us.
For example, I'd never thought about race before and I surprised that race is not just groups of nationalism or color of skin. Now I think my idea at that time was big-headed.I learned the importance of having a diversity identity. Big-headed sometimes causes factor of prejudice.This is an important source for becoming an international person and changing the world peace.
I appreciate sharing ideas with all of you :)
Thank you!!!

The Offender of Foreiner

I heard the news of foreigner.
She set fired the worker office employee because she has no job.
I was very sad to hear that news.
I thought Japan has more foreigners from now on, because Japan becomes the lowest birth rate and has a lot of elder people.
So, many foreigners will help Japan society and will play a role in the future.
And I think the affair like this will increase.
She should think Japan environment because now the most Japanese also have no work.
On the other hand, Japanese should think the difference between Japan and abroad country and offer the job where the foreigners feel comfort.
I think when Dr. Armstrong came to Japan, he also felt bad tempered.
But Japan has good points, too.
I think it is very hard to live in the other country.

Obirin university

Obirin university closed the school from last Tuesday to this Sunday,
because many people in Machida get influenza.
I think this may be helpful to prevent more people from get it.
However, many other school don't do so, and I am afraid that more and more people will suffer from influenza.
I have to wash my hands and put on cotton mask till the influence of influenza become small.
Everyone, please take good care of your body.

Part time job

I quit my part time job. I have workd there for one year and half. I hated my boss because he was a idiot! He was not really efficient. But he left the job like escaping. In addition to such a fool boss, There is also a person who has no ambitious. She relly annoying women. So, I feel releived to say I quit!

Happy and Save Money

I took the listening exam, but it was difficult for me.
These days, I am addicted to shopping, shopaholic^^!!
Things I want are all expensive. I have bought, so I have to save money rest of this month.
However I am happy that I can buy things I want.

media

About media, I heard an interesting story about keio university from my friend
who goes there. He told me that there are newspapers that tell the students which
professor has interesting lessons and which has the most boring.Interesting isn't it ?
I think we should have does in Aoyama too lol

Good evening

Why is everyone being so gloomy!!
It's not the end of our relation is it not?
I really had fun with my IE class and I'm
thinking of making a club for this class to
come together after class is over. So it's not really
goodbye. Like what Dr. Armstrong said, "Everything is connected!"
we might have a class with the same member again (although I doubt it lol)
Anyways, I must say thanks for being such a awesome class!!!

IE Class

I'm sad that IE Class will be over next week.
I was so uneasy at the first class.
Although the class was little hard, I enjoyed the class.

Thank you!

Media

I watched the news that Michael Jackson's ghost appeared.

I doubt whether it was right or not.
However, I watched the video clip of it.
It was so real and scary.
I believe that a little, watching it.

But I think media must broadcast the truth more beliefly and they should not inform the thing which is not clear exaggeratedly.

today

Today, IE writing was the last class. I felt really early to finish the first term. I was so sad. Moreover, Dr. Armstrong's class will be ended next week. However, there is a big problem. That is to say, we have to finish a lot of homework and study for the exams. Although I must study hard, I really feel sleepy.
Next week, I am going to go Shizuoka for the concert. Do you know "ap bank"? The members of it are Mr. Children, Takeshi Kobayashi who is a composer and so on. I like Mr. Children very much so I'm looking forward to going there.

Last Weekend

I went to Oze because I had basketball tournament games there. After school on Friday, we went to Oze by cars. On Saturday and Sunday, we had basketball games. We couldn't win the games only one time, we could enjoy the camp with teammates. But, because I had a could since last Wednesday, I was very hard and tired. In addition, I have a cold still now. I hope it will get better soon!

Today, the classes on Thursday was last. This means that the tests will come soon X(
I have 9 tests!!! That's too much, isn't it?? I'm very nervus.

Winding Down

Yes, Yuri, never fear. I will be there with cable in hand (well, bag . . .). Enjoying the comments and observations. Blog on!

I love IE3 class!

I can't believe that our class is over in one more day:( I really liked IE3 class, and it was very comfortable to spend time in. I liked the classmates, class activities, and of course Dr.Armstrong!!
I really really want to keep in touch with all of my classmates even this class finishes.
I'm so happy that I was one of the students in this class and be able to meet you guys! I still remember about the first day of class :) I think Kotaro was the first person who I talked to in IE3 class.lol
Well, I hope our group presentation will go well tomorrow.
To Dr.Armstrong, could you bring the cable to connect Tomo's laptop and school's audio tomorrow for our presentation?

I am very sad

Our IE (Core) class will be over next Tuesday. (>_<。。) When I noticed that, I felt so sad! What a short time we shared! I want to learn in this class with my IE class members! However, I am going to take part in the class of Dr. Armstrong after the summer vacation, too!! I am very happy and I'm looking forward to attend the class!! I will learn more things from him!

In the present core class, I learned a lot of things and I became to feel that I should study myself harder than before. What I thought about the class, in particular, is that we did our best in terms of media discussion! We had to prepare this every class, so we did 9 reports in total. I think we got used to write media report much better and we could obtain the ability of English speaking skill. Since we had continued to feel hard in our class, we were able to improve our English skills!
I was glad to have the teacher Dr. Armstrong in our class and also happy to meet the class members. I really enjoyed myself.

Let's enjoy our last class on Tuesday next to our heart's content!!!

Good-bye/~ ^_______^

Last writing class

Now, I am having last writing class.
Mr. Hardgrave is very strict, but he is kind.
I thought he made me strong.
At first, I was shocked at the difficulty of English.
However, at last I enjoyed his class.
So, I am very sad to say good-bye.

I hope to do my best at the second half and also, the last Dr. Armstrong class

where are the sheep?

My shirt is stuck onto my body and I can't sleep.
I blame it all on skype and also apple for making 2star quality products called iPods where it takes you hours to figure out how to make it quit syncing your whole music library every time you plug it it. By the way I dropped and broke my iTouch, and Apple gave me a brand new one! But still it doesn't make their products any better.

I've also been going to a lot of shows recently. My friend who can't make any friends at school and I have nothing to do but look forward to the shows on the weekends. Yesterday we went to go see WWE to refresh ourselves.

Some of the shows were all nighters which I absolutely hate because as a student I would like to keep my life cycle balanced. Not only does it ruin my skin, but makes me feel miserable when I get up the next day at 4pm and realised I wasted a perfect day off. But shows are still fun. There basically the center of my life now.

One fun show I went to was this fairly large festival at Kawasaki Club Citta.
There wern't any bands I wanted to see, but I just wanted to meet my friends.
It was all night so I did't have to worry about the last train home, and most of my friends were there!
My brother who reminds me of nam-plaa (that fermented fish sauce they use in Thai food)


I went with my friend from highschool. During my highschool years, we always ate lunch and hung out all the time until she quit and left her house. the last time I ran into hew was in Shinjuku and god knows what she was doing on the streets.

I was happy and surprised how she called me on that particular day before the show when we haven't spoken to each other for almost an year.
I introduced her to my friend and told her about how shes a year younger than me and is living with some random guy in Ikebukuro.
And an interesting thing my friend told me is that she said "I kinda guessed because people who had family problems, usually when they talk, they don't have any feeling in the tone of their voice. Theres one girl like that at my school too"
WOW! Has anyone ever noticed this? Do you think so?

Anyways people were very crazy but I just wanted to sit down. In the venue, this is what was going on... : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q7KjMQRhsyQ
Kids these days are just energetic! What happened to me?
The show ended with some terrible DJing by geki-rock but I had a blast



I went to another show that was all night again and did some DJing.


I was going to ask people questions for the questionnaires for our group presentation but no one took it seriously! Is it just me, or is everyone getting one word answers only? or "no comment!"?
Even if they didn't give me useful comments, you still gotta love the Versace sunglasses!

Good bye Michael Jackson.

To Shuya: Thank you for your comment! I'm sorry for late to answer. I know what you mean. I also wondered how Japanese communicate with foreign people at that time. the key was Dutch. It was interesting, but actually, I don't know how Japanese learned Dutch at Edo period so much. But it is obvious that there were many Dutch learners in Japan, so-called Rangakusya in Japanese. They mastered with nou only Ducth and also medical science. I'm sorry I can't come up your expectation....


Today, I cried to hear the words of Michael's doughter at the memorial service.I think people all over the world might cry, too. it was so sad.

about media

Penetration of our daily life by the Internet has made it
possible for us to form ideas different from that imposed
by mass media. I'm quite positive that the world has not
seen a situation like this before.

Conventional media have, understandably,tried their best
to stigmatize information conveyed and opinions expressed
online as unreliable in order to keep their position.
Until recently, they were in a position to and did in actual
fact convey information in a unilateral fashion and achieve
the manipulation of public opinion. This bare fact, that
is, their effort in stigmatization, I think, proves their
admission of the power of the Internet in the formation
of ideas.

Since diversity of opinions and ideas is an essential pre-
requisite for democracy, the great achievement of the Inter-
net mentioned above cannot be overestimated.

But I have some concerns about the Internet. Here, I will
touch on just one of them―Google. Google has, partly with
the help of aquisition, say, of Youtube,been growing at an
alarming rate. It has almost cornered the Internet adver-
tisement market and been invading the market of application
softs, where Microsoft has long been criticized, say, iron-
ically enough, by Google ,for monopoly(this is mainly because
it has been made possible for many application softs to
operate on brousers, making unavailable Microsofts' traditional
starategy of tie-in sales).

It is well known about "platform business" that once one company
has cornered the market, it becomes quite difficult, maybe almost
impossible, for others to challenge it. Just imagine you start
a new SNS and could challenge mixi.

The concentration of power in the hands of one company is,
considering together that it deals mainly with information,
horrible to think.

The situation might go back to the time when the Internet was not
available to us.

Manga cafe

Yesterday, I visited Kichityouji after my last class was finished. It took more than one hour from Machida to Kichityouji and the train is always crowded in the evening. I was very disgusted by that because I was so tired. But, my friend was really angry when I managed to arrive at Kichityouji. he said "I couldn't understand why you were so late". It made me really irritated. Well, dear my friend, I had an objection to that. First of all, as I mentioned, Kichityouji is far from my hometown, Machida. And, the reason you felt I was late is your hometown is very close to Kichityouji. So, you could get to Kichityouji only ten minutes. I wish you could be really an considerate person. Anyway, After that, we ate ramen in Bubuka ( Abura Soba is quite delicious) and played billiard for one hour. He is good at billiard though he has played billiard a couple of time. And we went to Manga Cafe. It is my first time to go to Manga Cafe in Tokyo. Honestly, contrary to my expectation, it was not good in service and room. room is not clean and I couldn't find manga I wanted to read. After all, I spent the night watching movie I borrowed from TSUTAYA. I don't recommend to go to Manga Cafe in Tokyo. I will never visit it.

Yes and No

Atsuko,

MJ had complexes about just about everything about himself, it seems! Like you, I thought for a long time that he had bleached his skin and wore make-up to look white. I still think he did that as well, but it is now documented and well-accepted that Michael Jackson did, bizarrely and ironically, suffer from the rare skin condition of vitiligo, an auto-immune syndrome that manifests itself with attacks in the skin against melanin cells (the cells that give our skin color-the more melanin, the darker our skin; the less, the lighter). What a hard time this guy had!

Exermination

We are going to take previousterm exermination in July and I have 8 ones at this time. How many tests do you have? I feel nervous even from now because they are all difficult. However, I had 13 ones when I was a freshman.

Nevertheless, I am going to do quite a few things during the summer vacation - Going back to my hometown, doing my homework (some reports), studying English, going shopping with my friends, taking part in a camp to get a car licence, and so forth. I also have more what I want to do during the summer vacation - going somewhere as a trip with someone or alone etc. , but I am not able to do them all. I also need to get some money by doing part time job!

For all students, studying is the most important thing and it is duty for us, too. Though we ought to consider it as an indispensable component, we always tend to forget this and aome students abandon it. We should notice it. Also I want to act like this.

See you then!

many works

I have many things to do. But, I'm so lazy that I finish them quickly. I have some plans for my summer vacation. So, if summer vacation start, I'll be able to have fan, but now I'm so nerves.

Last Tuesday Film

Different race can connect each other by singing and dancing.
They can enjoy even if skin color are different.
Michel messaged it by his performance, I think.

black or white

Michael Jackson wanted to tell us there is no difference if each people's skins are different. Once I heard he had a complex that he is African American. Then his skin started to be white. Some people said he had a disease of skin. I don't think so. But if he had a surgery to be white, why he did? There was contradiction between what he did and what he sang.

Last weekend

Last Saturday, I had a club activity. Some OB and OG were coming that time, and I was so happy to see them. It was a hot day, so we sweated a lot and needed to take drink much. I was very tired but could enjoy it. After the activity, we went to eat together! I ate a lot because I was really hungry and all of the food were really good. We then went for karaoke until 5 am. Although there were some people sleeping, we sang many kinds of songs and enjoyed till next morning. After we said good bye to my club members, five of us went to McDonalds to have a breakfast. We stayed there about 6 hours though we were tired and sleepy. It was sooo fun and I could spend a good time.

The Media

I think we can't avoid the media around us if we live at present because we get so much imformation from it while we don't notice that. We always think it is very convenient to have much imformation just through the media, but we also have to noice it is so dagerous to take all of imformation from the media, for it isn't necessarily correct imfoemation. Therefore, we need to take care of the point as much as possible. For example, comparing imformation such as book, TV and internet. I think the imformation by other people is also important media.

Under a large amount of imformation, we have got to think what to do in our daily life one by one. We will face more and more imformation in the future, so choosing right imformation for us is becoming important thing. We had better consider it more seriously.

see you!

This morning

I watched the prohibition part of "Black or White" in this morning on TV.

I don't know why this part was prohibited.

I think that he wanted to appeal that discrimination about people's skin should have been vanished.

This part has his message more strongly than the PV which we watched last class.

Black or White

I was shocked at the news of Michael Jackson's death. I could not believe at the first when my friend told me he died. Michael Jackson has greatly influenced people in the world by his songs. No matter the skin colors, languages, and customs, many people loved and listened to his songs. He tried to get rid of differences between people and this was one of his goals. I also think we should judge people not only their looks, but their inside things like their personality or kindness. Michael Jackson tought us a lot and I really think he was the king of pop and influenced everywhere in the world.

Hang in there, Yumi!

Sorry to hear of your bad day. I know the feeling about cell phones. I often turn mine off. Don't feel guilty. Sometimes we just need to be by ourselves . . . This is called "balancing your use of technology."

Things will be better another day.

Weekend!

Last weekend, I had circle activity at Shibuya and which was last one for the half term. Some OB and OG were coming for us to join it! It was so nice meeting them because I have not seen for a while. After activity, we had parties. I'm bad at drinking much so I just had foods and talk with friends. At the midnight, we went for Karaoke and stayed up all night! Some of us were sleeping and some were having fun, very tired though. In the morning, I went straight home and was off to bed right away!!!
I'm working on my book report for tomorrow...I don't think I will be able to finish during today.ummm..Although Pride and Prejudice is really great book it is hard to analysis. Try hard and do my best.

Animal Farm

I chose it for book report material. I had not been
interested in novels, but this masterpiece made me
into so-called dystopian novels. Im determined to
read brave new world and the time machine this summer.

The mass media

The mass media concentrate too much on the private lives of famous people.
I have three reasons for supporting this idea.
First, the media are very responsible to scandals.In fact, they expect the gossip and carry articles without confirmation and suggesting. This can easily influence on famous people's imagines whatever it is good or bad. It often makes famous people feel sad, angry, hurt. For example, Michel Jackson hurt his heart by black discrimination. I think it lead to his death.
Second, the mass media often give information which is an invasion of privacy as "Paparazzo" do. I think it is not fair. The mass media should respect famous people's private.
Third, the mass media sometimes tell lies. So I often can't believe the scandals or gossips.This makes me less interested about it.

Black or White

We watched the music video "Black or White" by Michael Jackson! I really love the song. In this video, there are lot of people who are from over the world. And the lyrics, "It doesn't matter if Black or White" as it is a title, we can see that Michael wants to insist people are all same. It doesn't matter our color of skins to get along. I think that all of his songs describ this kind of meanings. That's why his songs are loved all over the world.
Yesterday, I went for Karaoke with my friends and sang his songs , Thriller, Beat it, Billie Jean etc..for mourning!! Also I realized how sad we missed the King of Pop...RIP.

failure

Yesterday, I failed at part time job.
I thought I had no part time job, so I wanted to sleep for long time.
I set silent manner mood of my mobile phone.
I noticed the phone was ringing.
I was late for an hour.

I do not like cell phone.
So, sometimes, I set this mood because cell phone seems to restrain me.
But I learned if I set this mood, cell phone is nonsense.
When it was necessary to coexist with carrying well, I realized it.

transformer revenge

I watched "transformer revenge" in a movie theater in Kawasaki. It is far from my home in Machida and there is a movie theater near Machida. The one reason I took the trouble to watch it is IMAX. It is a motion picture film format and the quality of image is


the highest. therefore, audience can enjoy the the feeling of being at a movie scene. In Japan, there are only three theaters that the system is introduced. the one of them is in 109 cinemas in Kawasaki. And it is the first movie to be released in IMAX theater. Though it costs 2000 yen, it is worth watching it even if it costs 3000yen. By the way, the movie was really excellent, the budget is two hundred million dollars and the battle scene of autobots and decepticons are really exciting. You should watch it in IMAX theater. Incidentally, new Harry potter movie is also going to be released. I will watch it absolutely while it is test term.

Black or White

I watched "Black or White" music video by Michael Jackson in last class.
I think he wants to say equality of people in this video.
The color of your skin or the race is not matter.
You should judge the people not their races but their own personality.
I love this song so I searched its lyrics on the Internet.
I'm surprised when I looked at the lyrics because I'd never expected that content of this song is so serious. He was a first super star of Black. When he succeed in his business, the society still discriminate Black people. I think he might be tired of color discrimination.

Survey Cheaply!

Jaime, Ryosuke, Kotaro and others:

Want a way to get lots of survey responses quickly, without copy costs? Email or text the survey to all your friends. Be sure to carefully keep track of their responses. Just a thought.

*The Poster*

I have found the posters when I'm on the way to school. I also got interested in that because the pictures were so attractive and the messages made me to think the manner in the train. I hope people especially businessman to look at the poster and realize how their behaviors are.

My Idol

Since everyone is talking about Michael I thought I would blog about him a little too.
Michael Jackson has been an idol for me since I was in kindergarten. I went to his concert
when I was 1 (don't remember anything though) and I would dance to his video "Moon Walker".
He must have been one of the many favorite artists for many of the people who loves pops in Aogaku as well. Unlike what Anthony said last week, I don't think he was sexually into children.
I think since of the career he has been having since 5 in age, he really wanted to have a childhood, and take a break with all that work.
Michael rest in peace.

the pictures up on this are my three favorites

btw
CHRIS: YOUR VIDEO ROCKS!!
YUSAKU: I think they don't like the talking in trains cause of the pacemaker people on it gets effected.

pretty please with tomato on top?

Miki : Did you already go to Sakuragicho I missed the day where they had the gigantic spiders but I really want to go to the exhibition soon. In fact I only live 20 minutes away! And I always wondered how people were able to communicate using English and Japanese back then, but still, how did the officials of Nagasaki learn English?

---------------------

I was going through some old photos from 2-3 weeks ago, and I totally forgot to share this :


What do you think this is?

YES! it's a veggie short-cake! The sponge is green from Komatsuna ( I looked it up online, and since it's a Japanese vegetable, theres no English name for it) and instead of straw berries, it has tomatoes inside!

This is a zucchini mousse cake, and the second photo is a avocado rare cheese cake & carrot tart.



It was very different from what I expected. I was very please by how they hardly use any sugar so it wont cancel out the distinctive flavor of each vegetable but it's still weak. You must have a delicate and sensitive tongue to enjoy the zucchini cake, but I really like the idea.

To tell you the truth, I hated this store because I thought the producer Aya Kakisawa
"stole my idea" hahaha
I have always had many ideas for cakes and even made cupcakes using vegetables on valentines day myself. When I first saw Aya Kakisawa on TV I was angry because they were making a big deal out of what I have been doing since 3 years back with my friend. She even said it wasn't her idea, but a customer asked her to make an unusual cake.

The neat thing was that she was going to visit the high school I graduated from to talk about her career. I skipped class and went to my high school to find out I came on the wrong day. I had to skip class again and finally got to see her.

I then completely changed my opinion on her. She has been studying macrobiotic cooking for a long time so she has the knowledge and skills on how to deal with different types of vegetables while keeping it healthy; something I was completely foreign to. She even visits numerous farms and picks out the best organic vegetables in the country. It just happened so that she had a customer who wanted her to bake a unique cake and she just had komatsuna leaves lying around in the kitchen. I saw her in a new light and had much more respect for her after her presentation.

After that I got to meet her. It was funny how someone told her that I came on the wrong date. She was very happy when I told her I went to her store.

Yokohama 150 anniversary

It is anniversary of Yokohama port's opening this year. The Yokohama was opened at 1859, an Edo period. Now, in the Yokohama city, festival is held. there are many events.
By the way, at that time, do you know who transrated the English into Japanese? The answe is the official of Nagasaki. The Nagasaki was opened earlier than Yokohama so there are Nagasaki officials called Nagasaki Tsu-ji. Nagasaki Tsu-ji transrated the English to the Dutch at first, and then, transrate it into Japanese, finaly,Japanese can communicate with Amarican.
I learned this fact at my basic seminar today.
The form transrating among two more language is called Relay Transration. This is a one style of many ways of interpreter. I thought that there must be many problems at that time when there were no erectrical dictionary.

Michael Jackson

We watched a video of Michael Jackson in our IE class.
In this Video, there are many people who are Black and White. Though the color of skinsare different, all of them enjoy the music and the space together. This video tells me that the color or race don't connect with life, we can enjoy thgether and all of us are same human beings.
I was shocked when I knew that Michael Jackson died. I knew that he had cosmetic surgery to change the color of his skin. I thought that he didn't need to do so. And I can't understand that people aroundhim said to him about his color of skin. I think if he didn't have cosmetic surgery, he could live longer.

Sick;

Yesterday, when I got up, I had headache and throatache. So I took my temprature, I had heat, 38.6 X( I couldn't go to the practice of basketball. I wanted to go there because I go to the camp from this Friday to Sunday. I am anxiety about the camp ;O
Everyone, take care of your health!!

twitter

I think twitter is useful for many people because we can know what our family and friends are doing now. But it has also bad points. For example, people depend on some machines; cellphone, Internet, blog and so on. Then, directly communication will be gradually decreasing. Some years ago, people could get along with other people without cellphones. Also, there is some risks that bad person will use this system in a bad way. We should use it carefully.

Black or White

Michael Jackson was dead on last week.
I was very surprised at this news.

He tells us importance of our identity, I think.
It is important for human to look at our inside.
The appearance is not important.
But the person who was chewed up about the appearance was Michael.
So he had plastic surgery and broke his identity on himself.
And then, he was not satisfied with himself and wanted the perfect appearance.

I thought our identity is important.

Please do it outside.

On Saturday, Yuri and I were at Roppongi and at the station, I saw the poster of "Please do it outside". It was my first time so I was excited. I took a picture with my cellphone and I think everyone thought that I was weird. I looked for other, but I couldn't find any. I'll keep on looking for them!

pikachu

I went to Macdnald yesterday. and I ate Happy set. I often eat Jucy Chicken Redpapper but yesterday had a figure of Pikachu!!

Maichel

His death was very shock to me. When I was a high school student, I use to dance "Moon walk" I think that movie show us that the world is connected. If we cant't understand the language, we can communicate through dance and sing.

Cold

I had a cold and fever, so I was absent from school. Now I only have a cough and s sore throat. I staied at my house whole two days after a long time. I slept all the two days. I feel much better!!!
Be careful not to be had a cold like me! The due of the final book report is come soon!!!

manners

I talked about this last class but I guess I'll talk about it again.
To everyone who is watching this blog. How do you think when a
person starts slurping juice after it is empty?
I just can't stand the sound. I was taught not to do it since childhood,
so maybe it's just me but I just can't stand it!!

Manners on the train

Personally, I don't mind people making up or even talking on the phone on the train. But I can guess why those behaviors are considered rude in Japan. What they have in common is that they possibly make people feel alienated or kind of neglected. When someone started to make up or talk on the phone, the people around him or her would become objects, I mean, not humans, or people he or she doesn't have to care at all. I guess that kind of sense makes some people mad in Japan, where "accordance" is a noble virtue.

>Chris
I really enjoyed your video:)

Nothing is forever

I just looked at the poster Dr. Armstrong posted, but I thought the ban with the glasses was supposed to be the one LOOKING at the person with "bad manners" on the train, but that clearly is him, and no, you're supposed to barf in the restrooms!
I ride the subway so the manner posters I see on there are different and rather dull. I still don't understand why putting on make-up is considered bad manners. I bet I can ask the people at the train station or the person who made the poster, and they wouldn't be able to give me an concrete answer.
I'll write more on manners tomorrow.

Last week Michael Jackson passed away. Honestly, I wasn't a fan all that much, but when I read he passed away, it felt like my elementary school got burnt down, or perhaps a building I saw everyday that was in front of my house is now suddenly gone. If I said "it would never feel the same" I would be over-exaggerating, but he will be missed. It's just absolutely disgusting how his ex-wife who never looked after the kids is now all of a sudden claiming inheritance. Isn't she embarrassed? If MJ's father showed more love to him, maybe he would have lived a healthier life?
On Friday, right after school I went to Shibuya to meet up with my sister.
We went to Tower Records to see Michael's "hand"...


My sister who was a huge Michael fan would from time to time yell "WHY DID HE DIE??" out loud while walking in Shibuya...

On Monday, she played a show and after she sang her set, she came back out to sing a tribute song for Michael called "Ben"
She covered this song on her 2nd single and there were a lot of people in the crowd crying it was unbelieveable.




He may be dead, but his legacy still lives on in her.

Michael...

June 25 2009, the king of pop passed away. When I heard this news first, I couldn't believe that.
I love Micheal Jackson and his songs, dance music video everything! I was still shocked.

Last Tuseday, we watched one of the Michael's music video "Black or White" in the class. I've knowen this video and song because I have the Michael's CD and DVD and have watched again and again before. I think Michael tried to tell us the color of skin is no matter. A performance which Michael strokes his face by his hand means that the color of skin is no matter. He was born as a black but at this time, Michael was in a transition point to be white man from a black man.

Listening to Kevin Kelly

Kevin Kelly said in his speech that although some of us might claim that the phenomenon of everything becoming a part of the web is very questionable, we are dependent on so many things other than the Internet such as languages and so on. And that, therefore, we should be willing to accept the total transparency, which is a consequence of total personalization through the web, in the future.
I really disagree with him because I don`t think we`re dependent on the languages we use on everyday life-for in my opinion we can be depend on sth that is external.

Barf at the Pub!

Admittedly, my favorite Yorifuji poster:

Black or White

The last class was my first time to watch "Black or White."
I think that PV suggested any people are same.
Whoever he or she is, how old one is, or wherever one lives, they are equal.
So the title of this song, Black or White, means black skin or white skin is not so important thing to live with.
I love the last part of the PV. Many people's faces changes one after the other.
I felt people's good connection.

And, I like this music too, "We Are The World."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ezzxDk_vvXA
This is very good song which means helping each other is wonderful.

Black or White

I watched a Michael Jackson's music video, "Black or White"
In this music video, people from all over the world were singing and dancing.
There is no difference between people with whiteskin and people with black skin.
In the past, people with black skin were regarded as inferior to people with white skin and discriminated. And man people had had this bias for long time, and it was very difficult to take this bias away. I don't know whether this bias has been taken away completely now.
And I think what "Black or White" wants to convey us is all people are equal and skin color is not important for us.

Michael Jackson is a very popular singer all over the world, and it played a big role in changing ideas of people about racial discrimination that Michael Jackson showed the racial equality through his work.